Jay

[dandelionjack]

guys. the dictionary entry for ‘esquivalience’ is a non-cartographical equivalent of a trap street

…

[jayhartwinsterling]

Happy second birthday to {{esquivalience}}!

I wish it good tidings, as I ponder on it and its spiritual sibling. Not to mention the poem that teased it. Or the other poem related to it where I pondered on the feeling of zhurm that overcame me once. (That’s in a poetry book I finished last year, but is out soon.) And, where do things go next? Well, there’s the Longest Short Story You Will Ever Read coming soon. (Wrote that before this novelette was birthed into the public world, and it’s at last coming - as less than fifty words in a 600+ page book, and yet, it took someone three months to read.)

Oh and I should say: there’s a {{esquivalience}} play-script in the world too. That’ll probably be 2027 since things seem to run at a two or three year lead-time in my life (remember how Twist at the End was devised in January 2023 when my producer on [REDACTED] was asking about putting a folk song into it… expect that song to come back again at New Years in something I wrote last year too!), and I promise that absolutely nothing someone said is going to turn out comical in the future. Not one bit. Not at all.

[jayhartwinsterling]

So, uh, is now the time to ask Tumblr if they get that the joke in {{esquivalience²}} about me not having the rights to a character that gets cut off… is actually a bit of jokey hint to my unreleased incomplete Rani novel? The one that I didn’t finish because I found out during development that she would then be coming back on TV, and so had to keep that secret for a long time?

Or do I need to explain that long complicated story over here now, too?

[garkgatiss]

[jayhartwinsterling]

Could be worse. Nobody’s got bigger clown shoes than a writer in search of a sequel…

[jayhartwinsterling]

Terrible at working this place, but I’m back next March with a book that’s been quite interesting to do. It’s been fun to compile and comment on the works of the fab Al “Ally” O’Nim.

Some fine prose, poetry & even a unfinished script excerpt from such a fine under-appreciated artist. (Practically unheard of, how terrible is that?!)

It’s called Limerence - and hopefully, though it’s a different way of experiencing my creative pursuits, it’ll be of interest to you all!

[jayhartwinsterling]

Life would not be right without letting Susan Twist know of the web of coincidence that has unfolded upon my existence here… and so she now has cameo-ed in my life. And she has her own copy of {{esquivalience}} now.

She only went and asked me to sign it. I’m signing things for people now. What is my life.

I tell you - the universe is a strange place.

[lizardsfromspace]

Wordle is running out of words. Only 2,000 five letter words remain. When that supply is exhausted the Creation shall begin. One day the word will be ZHURM, and all shall get it, and all shall understand it to mean "an ache from suddenly remembering a long-ago friend, who meant something to you once, but whose face you can no longer conjure". The next day the word shall be JOROL, and all will get it, and all will know it means "the melancholy confusion of passing by somewhere where you once could have died". The next day it will be GREFT, and all will understand it to be a small brown bird with white streaks found only in South America, and suddenly, it will appear, in the underbrush of the Amazon, in the streets of São Paulo, and all will know that it once was not there, but now, will always be

[dandelionjack]

@jayhartwinsterling

[jayhartwinsterling]

Zhurm. I might need to use that now. Zhurm Zhurm.

[jayhartwinsterling]

Maybe the H. in my name actually stands for fucking Harbinger! 😳

Wait a minute, what was Harriet Arbinger?

Head of an archive.

Jamie is now staring at the rewritten corpse of Miltontheus, and then at ______ the Head D.C.

…well, fuck.

I am Russell’s Harbinger.

[jayhartwinsterling]

Jamie settles in, resigned to his fate, and ready for whatever the eldritch forces have inevitably prepared as the weird coincidence weaved into his life with this week’s episode of Doctor Who. 🤣😭

[heresmyfiddlestick]

alrighty so

Bridgerton, Strictly, and James Bond all mentioned, adding onto Davina McCall, Star Trek

“Cushy”, “okay”, “TV” all interesting words to Emily, adding onto foundled, spoor, smelt, chapping

The vitamin string quartet-ass covers of pop songs really fucking with whether we’re supposed to understand the music as diegetic or not, especially when we’ve been told there’s a tenuous distinction in The Devil’s Chord

direct references to an earlier character intro (Rogue paralleling Jack) just like I’m Space Babies (Ruby paralleling Rose)

aliens that are lured in by plot twists

also flashbacks to reveal previously unknowable information

it’s bringing up The Distancing Effect for me, being forcibly pulled out of the spectacle of something through uncanny elements and asked to reevaluate it. What happens when the characters in a tv show get dissociated from their show and have to reevaluate their existences? Who the fuck is Susan twist

this is to say nothing of Rogue’s reference to his “new boss”, harkening back to the Meep’s cryptic message…

[fiftysevenacademics]

And the idea of playing games that runs throughout this season. In this episode, it emphasized role playing: D&D dice, cosplay. This whole season is about re-enacting or playing with DW canon. Doctor Who as performed through the lens of fanfiction and cosplay-- the Doctor and Ruby cosplaying the Doctor and Companion. Did the Toymaker set this in motion somehow during the bi-generation? Are the Doctor and Ruby trapped in one of the Toymaker's games-- he's playing with them like dolls or action figures? Or is this all just Cleverness to get fans excited about the show again and we'll all be disappointed in the end? I trust RTD to give us a good ending, maybe even a heartbreaking one, because he does gut-wrenching drama so well.

[heresmyfiddlestick]

fantastic points! I’m just rewatching The Giggle (to make sure Susan Twist isn’t in the background somewhere) and of course the Toymaker is at the origin of all this weirdness, and what did he do in that episode? He fucked with the origins of television! I’m not sure I’ve seen that connection made yet

[heresmyfiddlestick]

@whycellothurr reminds me in their tags that we also had a Willy Wonka reference

which is the silly coincidental half-reference to {{esquivalience}} that this post was missing, because of course that story is tied to another one through a wayward can of Gevity, namely A World of Pure Unimagination. as with everything {{esquivalience}} at this point, i have to say this is probably just a spooky coincidence caused by whatever eldritch forces Jamie Cowan unleashed upon their own timestream, but baby we are in the "noticing coincidences" season

[jayhartwinsterling]

You know, Susan Triad seems to be trapped in the whims of reality and some mad masterplan from the universe around her in the Next Time trailer?

That. I’m feeling that. Maybe I should run a technology conference next week.

[crimsoncarmine]

Esquivalience??

[jayhartwinsterling]

😳 Nahhhhh stop it stop it STOPPPPP ITTTTTTTTT

[dandelionjack]

GUYS

@jayhartwinsterling are you seeing this

[jayhartwinsterling]

Look, I am rather more concerned about this talk about a Book-keeper who comes from an unnamed Homeworld… 🤣😳

[jayhartwinsterling]

This time on weird convergences in the universe that feel very surreal and centred upon {{esquivalience}}… because I’ve just been hit with this absolute surprise.

So I end up following Who cast after they’ve been in Who, see what else they’re doing… Gwion Morris Jones - who was just in 73 Yards last week - just put up a link to a new Welsh music video he’s in that has just come out.

The Prelude of {{esquivalience}} says hello WHAT THE HELL HOWWWWWW!

[bazwillendinflames]

Rest in peace Class you would have loved the mixing of supernatural villains, folk lore and science fiction

[jayhartwinsterling]

And people wonder how {{esquivalience}} came to be… I like The Metaphysical Engine - so, of course, I would happen!

ANDDDDD the song in it came about because of a conversation with my producer on [REDACTED DWU AUDIO PROJECT] during a script-editing meeting about how they really wished they could put “The Lost” in there as a song that goes through the ages. But, of course, you can’t. So, instead, that project is likely to use The Twist At The End. (Certainly, it will recur…)

But yeah, Class and Coal Hill Academy inspired a new Aubrey Waites tune in the DWU.

[hurrempilled]

'In Latin it would be semperdistans. Always distant.'

Welcome back Livia I Claudius.

[jayhartwinsterling]

And the beautiful trick of this story: semperdistans doesn’t just refer to the Woman 73 years away, but also refers to Ruby’s existence; her perception of the world is always slightly out of place. She’s always distant from the people she brings into her life, even though they’re unaware of the Woman. And anyone who wasn’t distant has been made distant by… the Woman.

Three layers of always distant.

[jayhartwinsterling]

Me: *begging the show that is Doctor Who to stop doing weird things relative to my life*

73 Yards: Mad Jack was bound by a circle of string and words written on paper because there is magick in the written word, and also Enid’s going to invent a new word out of translating a phrase into Latin.

Me: *screams*

[jayhartwinsterling]

Just another note of how weird my life is:

• Jamie - had chat with friend on Tuesday about Susan Twist

• Jamie’s friend - mentions on Tuesday their other friend & their recent penchant for Susan Twist-quoting in a local gay bar

• the other friend - works in a bar… and has just today had actual Susan Twist come in for a quick drink in Scotland just before going to see a show!

Susan Twist has genuinely just went and cameoed as ‘Customer’ in the life of a friend-of-a-friend. I must be the TV show.

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

mavitas

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

facdocksparation 🤌

[jayhartwinsterling]

Okay, so here’s one thing that I can say is not a coincidence…

The word facdocksparation has seeded in advance (a year in advance! It’s not in the story itself, it’s just in the cover… isn’t that playful?) and it will return in the future, too… Oh, and at least one of those other words on that cover will appear elsewhere too.

In a shorter story I’ve done for something. That is also madder than this one. And is certainly a first for the DWU… possibly even a literary first. Depends how mad other people are when they fall off the grid of what’s considered sane & do something really wild. But - in the style of DWM’s Production Diary - let’s just say it has required the oversight of a certain kind of person in a way that I don’t think anyone in that field has ever before been asked for oversight… (I can’t say more than that, because my editor and the publisher would probably shoot me!)